Food: A Stumbling Block to Believers and Non-believers
What the Bible says about eating food sacrificed to idols
Around the World in 80 Days
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What does the 1956 version of Jules Verne's classic Around the World in 80 Days have to do with food and stumbling blocks?
When Victorian-era Englishman Phileas Fogg undertakes a wager to travel around the world in 80 days in a hot air balloon, he takes in tow his faithful (but new) French manservant Passepartout (pass-par-TOO) as his traveling companion. Passepartout's couriosity and love for adventure (and women) gets him into all kinds of interesting predicaments, including getting shanghaied in China, roped into a bull fight in Spain, and enlisted as an acrobat in a Japanese circus.
Holy Cow
But when attention seeking Passpartout attempts to save a damsel from a flower hungry bull in India, things don't go as expected. All his skill with his red flag (muleta) in the Spanish arena did him no good against the bull in India — because when he used his jacket as a muleta, the people cheered for the animal instead of him. Passpartout found himself chased down the streets by a mob of angry Hindus.
In Spain it was an honor to sport with a bull; in India it was a sacrilege because cows were considered holy.
Animal Sacrifice Today
It is common knowledge that cows are sacred to the Hindus. Most people, however, don't realize that Hindus all over India continue to offer animal sacrifices to many of their 3 million deities.
The following animal sacrifices are still performed in India: [1]
In Rajasthan buffalo and goats are often sacrificed to the goddess Kuldevta, a family diety.
In several Southern Indian states, whole villages offer goats and buffalo to the goddess Renuka, an incarnation of the goddess Shakthi.
Certain communities of Maharashtra offer worship to Saptashrungi after a child is born. The ritual includes the sacrifice of a goat.
A large animal sacrifice of around 250,000 animals is offered in Nepal during the three-day-long Gadhimai festival. This sacred festival is attended by millions of worshippers. (One source says this mass sacrifice was banned in 2015.)
This is only a sample of the animal sacrifices that are being practiced in the nation of India and around the globe. In America, the idea of animal sacrifice seems a distant or foreign idea. But in other countries it is alive and well. Even Islam promotes animal sacrifice in their holy festival of Eid al-Adha. [2]
Food Sacrificed to Idols
The modern and ancient use of animal sacrifice should instruct us when we come to passages in the Bible that discuss the eating of "food sacrificed to idols."
In Three Overlooked Dietary Laws in the New Testament we noted that God is still concerned with the food we eat today. There we saw that the Apostles agreed that Gentiles should not eat food sacrificed to idols.
Paul further elaborates this principle in his first epistle to the Corinthian church, where he devotes an entire chapter (a case could be made that he devotes 3 chapters) to food sacrificed to idols. There Paul notes that in reality there is no such thing as an idol (or a false god) because there is no other god but the true God. Yet those who sacrifice to idols believe that idols are real. And those who have recently left a pagan religion likely feel defiled by eating such a sacrifice. It is for their sake [new converts] that Christians are not to partake of food sacrificed to a false god (or idol). Paul ends the chapter with these words: "And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak [by eating food sacrificed to idols], you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble."
Paul continues the topic in chapter ten, where he writes, "What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons."
And so Paul gives further instruction on food sacrificed to idols in chapter 10, which I have paraphrased and expanded below.
Let no-one seek his own good, but the good of others (I Corinthians 10:24).
Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without asking questions as to whether or not it was sacrificed to an idol -- since there is no real "defilement" of meat based on whether it has been sacrificed to an idol or not (I Corinthians 10:25).
If a pagan invites you to dinner, eat what is set before you without asking questions (I Corinthians 10:27).
If however someone shares with you that food has been sacrificed to an idol -- do not to partake of the food. Not for your own conscience' sake, but for the sake of the one who informed you that it was sacrificed to an idol (I Corinthians 10:28).
Whatever you eat or drink do it to the glory of God -- not for your own benefit alone. Abstain from eating if it honors God. Eat if it injures no-one (I Corinthians 10:31).
In your eating do not offend Jew, Gentile, or fellow believer (I Corinthians 10:32).
Conclusion
The beautiful principle we can glean from this post is that God cares not only about food. More importantly He cares about people. Food is merely an instrument to nourish the body. It should not become a stumbling block to believers or non-believers. And the burden of the weight of this is placed upon the mature in Christ. In all our eating and drinking, we must seek to glorify God.
This can be done in more ways than abstaining from food sacrificed to idols. Another way to glorify God is to eat the foods that He created to be received with thanksgiving (I Timothy 4:3). And that is what we will be talking about in the upcoming months at Reformed Health.
This was the final part in our 10 part series: 10 Ways Food Impacts History, Life, and the World in the Bible.
What's Next?
While the scope of this article was not to elaborate on the Three Overlooked Dietary Laws in the New Testament, we did look more in depth into the principle of abstaining from food sacrificed to idols. Future posts will go into more detail about the Three Overlooked Dietary Laws in the New Testament. So stay tuned.
Next: Conclusion: 10 Ways Food Impacts History, Life, and the World in the Bible
Return to: Biblical Health Study
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sacrifice_in_Hinduism
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha